Ron DeSantis takes control of 'woke' Disney board, tax breaks remain
By: Rex Huppke
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
It seems rumors of DeSantis' success at battling the liberal 'woke mind virus,' or whatever it is they're calling it these days, may be greatly exaggerated.
If you're into combatting wokeness, the imaginary villain that haunts Republican fever dreams, then Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is your superhero du jour.
He took on Woke Disney and won! He flew migrants to Woke Martha's Vineyard and owned the libs! He singlehandedly de-woke-ified the Woke College Board's planned AP African American studies course!
The mighty DeSantis is surely the Anti-Woke Warrior conservative America needs, right?
Well, let's put it this way: If you're into combatting wokeness, you're also into getting conned, so embracing DeSantis as a blustery David defeating this perceived Goliath of liberalism is perfectly on brand. But if you've got at least one oar in the waters of reality, it's a short paddle to see behind the curtain of Florida's Great and Mighty Despoiler of Woke. And there ain't much back there.
Florida's governor bravely takes on ... Disney?
Take DeSantis' war on Disney, which began after the corporation - one of the largest private employers in the state - spoke out in opposition to Florida's "don't say gay" law restricting discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity in schools.
The governor struck back at the "woke" theme park and entertainment giant last year by pushing for and then signing a bill abolishing the company's longstanding status as a special tax district. In theory, that meant an end to significant tax breaks the company has enjoyed for more than 50 years.
However, right-wing exclamations of "WAY TO GO, RON!" were premature. Turns out that just doing away with Disney's Reedy Creek Improvement District - which put the company in control of the sprawling area it inhabits - would force taxpayers in surrounding counties to shoulder the costs of running the Disney-occupied area (think emergency services, road repairs etc.) and take on the special tax district's roughly $1 billion in debt.
So the Florida Legislature that does DeSantis' bidding swooped into a special session this month to clean up the governor's mess. Lawmakers passed a new bill that lets DeSantis pick who sits on the Disney tax district's board.
DeSantis' Disney victory not all it was cracked up to be
As The New York Times reported: "This time, Disney would be allowed to keep the special tax district - which never went away - and almost all its perks, including the ability to issue tax-exempt bonds and approve development plans without scrutiny from certain local regulators."
So … DeSantis stuck it to woke Disney by taking control of the board that oversees the company's special tax district while leaving all the perks and tax breaks in place.
The bill's sponsor in the House, Republican Rep. Fred Hawkins, was asked how it changes anything happening in the district and said: "That I can't answer."
'BIG loss for conservatives'
Even some conservatives saw through DeSantis' fake victory. Anthony Sabatini, chairman of the Lake County Republican Party in Florida tweeted: "So basically Woke Disney gets to keep its nearly tax-free, regulation-free status—but with a different Board. … What a massive capitulation this is. HUGE win for Woke Disney. BIG loss for conservatives."
The far-right news site Big League Politics blasted this headline - "FRAUD: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis Folds to Woke Disney, Pushes Bill to Quietly Restore Special Tax Breaks."
That's far from the only example of DeSantis' all-talk-no-actual-destruction-of-wokeness grift.
DeSantis said he forced changes to an AP course - but he didn't
The governor recently took credit for the College Board making changes to an AP African American studies course he had rejected as too "woke" and "historically fictional." The board clapped back, saying any claim that the board "was in frequent dialogue with Florida" about the content of the course is "a false and politically motivated charge."
Last year, DeSantis fancied himself a true master of "owning the libs" after using Florida taxpayer money to lure migrants in Texas onto a plane and dump them in Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts. The stunt might have pleased a cruel swath of the governor's base, but it was largely met with derision and viewed as an inhumane waste of money.
It also, according to at least one of several lawsuits, might have violated state law because the state money earmarked for transporting migrants specified they had to already be in Florida, not Texas or any other state. And, of course, the whole stunt had zero impact on immigration, or really anything else.
Florida lawmakers spending time cleaning up DeSantis' war-on-woke messes
The aforementioned Republican Florida lawmakers who recently cleaned up DeSantis' Disney mess also tried to fix his migrant transport problem this month by passing a bill that declared "all payments made pursuant to (the original law) are deemed approved." It's good to have powerful friends devoid of ethics, apparently.
DeSantis is fighting woke gun-control advocates by pushing legislation that would allow Floridians to carry guns without safety training or permits. But at an election night party in Tampa last year, The Washington Post reported, the governor's campaign banned guns at the event while asking city officials to say it was their decision.
Florida: Where woke goes to die ... or not
It seems rumors of DeSantis' success at battling the liberal "woke mind virus," or whatever it is they're calling it these days, may be greatly exaggerated. I imagine that's of interest to another alleged enemy of wokeness down in South Florida - one Donald J. Trump. Rumor has it the former president and current presidential candidate is sitting around pondering possible nicknames for DeSantis, who many expect will enter the Republican presidential primary.
How about Paper-Tiger Ron? Or maybe Ron FakeSantis? Ron "All Woke Sizzle, No Woke Steak" DeSantis?
I dunno, I'm just spitballing here. I'll leave it to Trump to figure it out. It's literally the only thing he's good at - which means he's good at one more thing than Florida's all-show-no-go governor.
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So after all that, basically nothing will change except he got a few people on the board...
I'm looking forward to witnessing the human carnage that will be the 2024 GOP primaries.
oops, I meant sub-human...
This new un-woke board gets caught with their hands in the cookie jar in 5, 4, 3, 2....
Woke=aware. No wonder repubes hate it so much, they want their people kept in the dark and fed shit, just like mushrooms.
“Woke=aware”
But under the auspices of this gop, just another example of misinformation, misappropriation, and misguided propaganda.
Sometimes I think the right wing wants things run like the Puritans.
They're like the goddamned Baptists and Church of Christers in Arkansas...they don't want anyone to have any fun
all that drinking and dancing and they risk humping their cousins...
It's not like we didn't see this coming and try to warn our fellow NT populists.
Yes, I posted articles on what was going to happen, but ''Tough Ron'' the Woke Warrior is banging the drum as the toughest of the tough.
His war on illegals is another BS claim. The two plane loads of illegals he sent to the northeast were the first and last since a number of lawsuites followed that fiasco.
DeSantis bragged about how all employers would be subject to the Florida's E verify law. The end result was that DeSantis and the state legislature only required government agencies and those that are vendors to them are required to enforce the E verify law. Of course that does nothing to remove or stop illegals in FL. the 3/4 of a million illegals work in the agriculture/service industury which were exempted.
Way to go Ron.
I wonder how long it will take them to understand Populism isn't a viable way to govern without going full authoritarian? There are more than a few on the right know they can't win within the framework of democracy so they are going full tilt into Authoritarianism. Maybe that's what we need to fully understand once more what democracy really looks like?
It will take forever because populists always fail to understand that when you court extremists, you can never go back to the middle. If you try they turn on you. If you wanna keep your head you have to keep towing the populist line which always ends in mass murder.
Is DeSantis just an actor?
He's a bad actor for sure
It was petty and stupid from the very beginning. It was also quite possibly unconstitutional. Regardless, any time government uses its power to retaliate against someone for their speech, they look weak. And the whole business conflicts with fundamental conservative principles of limited government, pro-business, free speech, etc.
Now that the governor has finally got around to making his move, I expect Disney will make spend the next few years embarrassing him and the state in court.
I think the GOP has forgotten what their core values used to be
The GoP has been overtaken by alt+right populists. Any real conservatives have either been run out of the party or silenced to keep their job. Case in point - Liz Cheney had a 97% conservative voter rating while in Congress, but because she didn't toe the populist line she got bounced out of the shrinking tent with RINO stamped on her forehead.
they're required to goosestep in sync now...
Woke is a meaningless term these days. When someone uses the word woke I just tune out because all that comes after is gonna be an endless bitch fit of things they don’t like for whatever reason. That’s all using “woke” means, “I am about to bitch like a hooker who didn’t get paid”.
Me, too. It has joined a long list of meaningless terms that I tune out.
It’s a waving red flag that there is nothing worth paying attention to in the works. Just a bunch of horseshit hyperbole and exaggeration. In other words, nothing worth paying attention to or wasting any energy on.
When someone uses the term ''woke'' with me I simply reply, "better than being comatose like you''....got me a few tickets but it's well worth it.
hearing the word woke from anybody on the right sets off my idiot alarm.